Externally, even at the level of European decision-makers, the issue of the Romanian Treasure shipped to Moscow has remained largely unknown, the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu, said on Monday at the symposium “Romania’s Treasure shipped to Moscow – a century-old claim”.
“In the public circuit abroad, both scientific and popular literature, there are no works in international languages dedicated to this topic, and Romanian historians and legal scholars have not addressed this issue abroad,” said Mugur Isarescu.
He said that a first step will be to support the efforts of MEP Eugen Tomac to inform the members of the European Parliament and to internationalize the treasure issue.
The BNR governor mentioned those who have held high the flag for the recovery of the Treasure evacuated to Moscow: Ioan Scurtu – the first co-chair of the Romanian-Russian Commission from 2004 to 2012, Ioan Aurel Pop – co-president of the Romanian-Russian Commission from 2012 to 2018, Ioan Bolovan – corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, currently co-chairman of the Romanian-Russian Joint Commission, Mircea Geoana – Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who signed in 2003 the documents establishing the Romanian-Russian Joint Commission, Victor Gavrilescu – the first co-secretary of the Romanian-Russian Joint Commission, director with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alina Orosan, currently co-secretary of the Romanian-Russian Joint Commission, Director General for Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, MEP Eugen Tomac, Mihai Gribincea – former ambassador of the Republic of Moldova in Bucharest, currently strategic advisor at the National Bank of Romania, Ilie Schipor – military historian, Dorin Matei, editor-in-chief of Romanian magazine “Magazin Istoric” (Historical Magazine).
Mugur Isarescu announced that this year, in December, it will be 107 years since the evacuation of Romania’s Treasure to Moscow, adding that “Since 1991, the National Bank of Romania has consistently implemented a strategy to present to the domestic and foreign public opinion the issue of the Treasury shipped to Moscow and then seized by the Soviet Union. This year we have proposed to organize several events to reaffirm, especially internationally, that Romania has a fully valid historical and legal claim on its gold deposit evacuated to Moscow in 1916-1917”.
